You are running a critique on Thursday and quietly dreading it. Someone has just picked your work apart and you’re still smarting. You have a page of notes from a feedback session and don’t know what to do with them. And the feedback that you get, when you actually get some, is mostly just opinion. You are sure there must be a better way.
Feedback is the cheapest way of making design better. When done right, it takes minimal effort yet yields disproportionate results. Done poorly, it gives you almost nothing. This book is about fixing that. It covers how to ask for feedback so that people actually give it, how to give it so that others can act on it, how to sort through what you receive, and how to sit on the receiving end without it stinging.
At the centre of the book are 52 design feedback questions, each with an explanation of what it is for and when to ask it. They also live as a built-in deck of cards printed in the footer of every page: flick through the book, stop anywhere, and you have a question to put to the work in front of you. Pick one at random, and it will send your thoughts somewhere they would not otherwise have gone.
There is also a checklist for preparing and running a session, a chapter on what to do when someone derails one, a chapter on building a feedback culture from nothing, and three conversations with working designers – with Petter Alexanderson on a format that worked for forty designers at IKEA, with Kristoffer Åberg on not carrying your bicycle on your back, and with Adam Connor, co-author of “Discussing design”, on the early feedback that scarred him (see the full table of contents here).
Written for designers, and equally useful to the researchers, developers and product owners in the room with them.
Order directly from Omniphor Press
The book is currently being printed and just weeks away from being a real physical thing.
The book is 385 SEK (incl. VAT) if you pick it up in Malmö, and 440 SEK sent to anywhere in Sweden. You can Swish the money to 0703-631930.
Postpaid to anywhere else in the world, the book is 44 EUR or 52 USD (you choose whether to pay in EUR or USD). Send money through PayPal to the.daviddeleon@gmail.com
Bulk orders (4 or more books) receive a 10% discount.
Invoice, for companies – Email the number of copies, your billing address, your VAT number and any purchase-order reference to the.daviddeleon@gmail.com and you will get a proper invoice with 30 days to pay.
Extras for readers
1. Downloadable PDFs with the design feedback cards. Print them out and play.
| The design feedback cards (questions only, A4 format) |
| The design feedback cards (fronts and backs, colour, A4 format) |
| The design feedback cards (fronts and backs, greyscale, A4 format) |
2. Or use the dedicated web page to pick a card at random (a Claude artifact).
3. A downloadable PDF with a simple session checklist.
3. Book-club kit (coming soon).
4. Watch David’s talk about design feedback at UX Copenhagen 2023.
About the author
David de Léon is a user experience designer and researcher based in Malmö, Sweden. He spent a decade at Sony Ericsson and Sony Mobile, where he reviewed most of the design output of teams in Sweden, Japan and China, which is where his interest in what makes feedback productive began. He holds a PhD in cognitive science and now works freelance on design strategy, user research and innovation, and teaches design feedback to industry teams.
When he’s not writing books and pamphlets, he is most likely reading sci-fi, fantasy, ergodic literature, philosophy, and psychology; playing role-playing games; or napping on the couch.
Bring this to your team
If a book is not quite what you need, there are other ways to work together.
A talk – A good way to kick-start a culture of feedback is David’s inspirational talk (in-person or online) on the conditions needed for good design feedback, with an emphasis on removing the psychological barriers to giving and receiving feedback.
Some of the places that David has given talks include: Beyond tellerand, IKEA, Riverty, Snow Software, STHLM Xperience Conference, Stravito, Ubisoft and UX Copenhagen.
A full-day training session – David’s full-day training sessions are an engaging mix of mini lectures, group discussions and practical hands-on exercises. Companies that have already trained with David include: Accenture Song, IKEA, King, Making Waves, Paycheck Europe, Karolinska Institute.
Feedback on your design – A session on your actual work, run the way the book describes, followed by feedback on your feedback.
Get in touch
If you have a question, feedback on the book, or want more material about David’s training sessions, drop us an email.
The Design Feedback Handbook: The art of giving and receiving feedback on UX design, Omniphor Press, ISBN 978-91-985522-4-9, First edition, 227 pages, Volume 2, designer power-up series.